Fifty years ago the W. K. Kellogg Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology was founded as a center of radiation therapy. Seven years later it abandoned medicine to pursue its development into what is today an internationally known center of nuclear physics. The behind‐the‐scenes negotiations surrounding the laboratory's founding, early history and abrupt change in direction give unusual insight into the administrative style of Robert A. Millikan, Caltech's chief executive. The early history of the laboratory was shaped in important ways by this Nobel Prize winning physicist's successes and failures in raising support money. His efforts, including a 13‐year long attempt to take a horse farm away from the University of California, reveal why Millikan was so successful as head of Caltech, and show that it was just as difficult then to get support for pure research in a new field of physics as it is today.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
July 1981
July 01 1981
The giant cancer tube and the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory
The early history of the world‐famous nuclear physics laboratory involves a Nobel Prize winning physicist, a wealthy physician, the developer of a million‐volt x‐ray tube, and the cornflake king.
Charles H. Holbrow
Charles H. Holbrow
Colgate University
Search for other works by this author on:
Physics Today 34 (7), 42–49 (1981);
Citation
Charles H. Holbrow; The giant cancer tube and the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory. Physics Today 1 July 1981; 34 (7): 42–49. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2914646
Download citation file:
PERSONAL SUBSCRIPTION
Purchase an annual subscription for $25. A subscription grants you access to all of Physics Today's current and backfile content.
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
The lessons learned from ephemeral nuclei
Witold Nazarewicz; Lee G. Sobotka
FYI science policy briefs
Lindsay McKenzie; Jacob Taylor